Dear Reader:

Like so many others… memories growing up in the ” Elizabethan II” years have come pouring back these past couple of days since Queen Elizabeth’s passing Thursday.

My earliest memory is a story mother told me about a neighborhood ” celebration coronation” the mothers put together in June of 1953…. the royal coronation day for Queen Elizabeth II.

Apparently one mother had discovered some food product at the grocery store ( thinks it might have been a bread loaf name) would give each customer a plastic coronation tiara for each loaf bought. All the mothers of little girls scrambled to purchase the bread and get the tiara in exchange.

Since I was only three… mother had to pin mine to make it smaller to fit my head. The mothers put up cardboard tables all along the sidewalks on our street with a mixture of folding tables and assortments of chairs and benches.

Mother said each table had a colorful plastic tablecloth covering it…with bouquets of fresh flowers from different yard gardens on the street.

Pink lemonade was served, along with a wide variety of homemade cookies-all the little girls had on frilly ” Sunday-Go-To-Church dresses while the older girls wore different gowns and fancy dresses their mothers handed down or made-there was a lot of swapping going on!

No doubt, surely, someone got a picture of our neighborhood ” coronation” but mother never produced one to show me each time she shared that story. ( What a picture for the memories it would have been!)

Obviously it made an impression on mother’s memory-since every time Queen Elizabeth II appeared on the news or in a documentary… mother would start… ” Did I ever tell you? …” ( I let her tell it over and over since I loved hearing it again too- mother adored Queen Elizabeth-they were only about six years apart in age.)

Looking back now on last Tuesday… I wonder why I was hesitant to replace the current mantle wreath with my pretty white pumpkin one -what lead me to seek out the ” Gather” wall frame instead? Then when I received this comment from my Canadian friend and post reader ( Lynn Gamache) …it made me wonder if that decision had more far-reaching implications.

Powerful comment and right on target… thank you Lynn for ” gathering” your thoughts and sharing them with us!!

I just finished listening to King Charles III’s first speech -a moving tribute to his mother. Once much much earlier … a very young Queen paid tribute to her parents saying” Although my experience is so short and my task so new… I have in my parents and grandparents an example which I can follow with certainty and confidence… I thank you all from a full heart.”

King Charles III immediately spoke of his mother’s ” Heartfelt promise to her sense of duty which never wavered… a destiny kept.”

So until tomorrow… ” A life well-lived” King Charles III began his first thoughts of his mother with…isn’t that a line we all hope one day can apply to our own lives?

Still the best line was saved for the last line from the new king to his MaMa joining his PaPa with …” May flights of angels sing thee to Thou rest.” Amen

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh ( Disney immediately paid tribute to the Queen upon hearing of her passing and look who they turned to as their ambassador!!!)